Lab mice can say goodbye to clunky old non-virtual mazes
Posted 10.14.2009 at 2:00 pm
12 Comments
Mouse in Virtual Maze: David Tank
Neuroscientist David Tank was able to study the individual neurons in the hippocampus that control motion; a scientific feat that hasn't previously been achieved. The neurons of mice scurrying through a real maze jostle around too much, so this system, where the maze moves and the mouse is stationary (held in place by a little collar) is a triumph.
I think I've played against this mouse.
[via Wired]
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I don't get it... it's just going in circles, mouse doesn't seem to change directions at all on the ball.. This is not a maze and doesn't seem to really prove anything at all...
Be much more interested if they actually made a maze, and rewarded mice with food when it reached a particular place in level or giant piece of cheese, lol. Then that would be something actually intersting seeing the mouse navigate objects and such, but in this video mouse simply turns right indefinitely in a circle?!
It's tough when the oversized trackball under your feet keeps slipping out from under you. I can only imagine that making turns on that thing must be difficult, since once it starts spinning one way, the ball tends to want to keep going in that direction.
Or are they just showing the same twenty seconds of footage in a loop?
They should put it in a real game. Get it addicted to something and give him the drug when he gets a kill. Use a little mousy taser to shock em when he dies. It would be funny seeing it kick ass vs human players. Now that would be science.
Not quite so extreme, but I tend to agree with AnimeMaster.
from Holland, Michigan
It looks like the mouse is just running on some ball. Doesn't look at all like its actually running the "maze". It seems to me that it is trying to get out of its harness, but can't get any traction on the ball.
poor poor mouse.. in a real maze at least he can physically get out of it.. virtual maze? not so much. "it smells like ive been here before"
Great!
Now engineer a mouse that plays Portal. :)
-DaSonicMan
Looked like a circle to me too! Maybe there is more to it or maybe they can come up with something better than a ball.
animemasters got the right idea.
How about something bigger than mice....how about using a dog...much more intelligent = kick human ass in call of duty
on the extreme side...could some crazy person someday use even smarter octupuses or dolphins to play Halo online?
I agree with animemaster...
Would be funny to watch a mouse beat humans.
"You just got pwnt by a mouse!"
I guess that finally kills my vision of cheese at the center of this maze.